1 OCTOBER 1943, Page 14

RUSSIA'S LOSSES

SIR,—You say in your footnote to Mr. Barton, his letter, that your statement about Russia's losses is perfectly correct. This means that you have accurate information of a unique character. You give the ratio as 1,000 to less than zo. The losses Great Britain has sustained of sailors, soldiers and airmen must be in excess of .300,000, if you think of Dunkirk, Tobruk and North Africa generally, Crete, Greece and Malaya, which would give a Russian loss of 15,000,000, but the French, Norwegians, Belgians, Poles, Dutch, Greeks, Czecks, Serbs and Americans have also had losses. If we and the Americans only have sacrificed 400,000 men, the Russians have lost zo,000,000—which seems [A statement must be read in its context. The reference in our leading article was to Russia's relations with her Western Allies and the respective losses on the eastern and the southern fronts. The comparison was, of course, an estimate, but there seems no reason to revise it.—ED., The Spectator.]